Did you know that the inbound link is the second most important factor that helps your business rank in local searches?
Links rank 17% of local searches for your business, ranking second after Google My Business signals.
This means that when another website is linked to your website (as long as it is a trusted site), that link goes a long way in helping your business rank in a local package.
Let’s talk about how it works and what you can do about it.
What is link building?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) link building is the process of getting inbound links that point to your business website from other websites.
Link building helps increase search rankings because search engines see links as a sign of trustworthiness.
So if a local blogger visits your business and writes a blog post about it with a link to your website, that link (also known as a back link) is part of the link building process.
Watch our video for more tips to improve your local search rank.
How it works?
There are many ways and reasons your business will get backlinks.
And just like there are so many ways to get backlinks, your site is likely to have many different pages that other websites can link to as well.
But, as long as they’re linked to a page on your site (and again, as long as the website linking to your site is of high quality), that’s a good backlink.
Why should you care about link building?
· Links are useful for both organic SEO and local SEO.
· And inbound links are one of the top ten factors for organic ranking.
Better yet, content can help you get more inbound links. If your website has a blog, your content can generate backlinks. However, we’ll talk about this later.
Therefore, we know that the number of backlinks pointing to your website is one of the most important factors in how Google will rank your site in organic searches.
And according to casino link building company, links remain the most essential component of search algorithms for organic searches. So if you want your business to be found in organic searches, the link building has to be comprehensive.
However, we return to local searches.
What does all of this have to do with local businesses? And why should you care? By the way, inbound links are also good for local SEO.
Like organic searches, search engines like Google use backlinks as one of the factors that determine how well your business ranks in local search.
They should be found in local searches because consumers are looking for:
• 97% of consumers learn more about business online than anywhere else.
• 54 percent of Americans use local online search instead of using phone books.
And local searches have led to online store visits: 88% of consumers call or visit a store within 24 hours of a local search.
Potential customers search the internet for local businesses, and local businesses always want to know how to rank higher on local searches.
So if you want your business to be found in local searches (and we know it is), you need to look for opportunities to build inbound links to your website. But before we link and not build links, let’s talk about how search engines look for backlinks.
Link building strategy that will bother you
Link building is one of the most misused ranking factors according to the Local Search Association. In the past, companies have used Black Hat (shady) tactics to quickly get multiple inbound links (spammers).
But companies using a black hat link building strategy are often penalized. Google launched its Penguin update in 2012 to punish websites that attempted to spam search results.
I know you want better search rankings right now, but the get-link-quick system will only give you trouble in the end.
Google has a long list of guidelines for links and link building. Here’s something:
- Do not buy or sell links
- Do not try to get multiple links at once by exchanging links (offer to link to other sites if they link to you)
- Do not spoof links by asking others to use HTML and CSS to hide links on your site
And Google is not the only one. Bing also penalizes websites that use a Black Hat link building strategy.
final thoughts
Link building is not something you do once and then forget. Search engines like fresh content. There will always be new places you research (think new content you can create and share, local bloggers starting now, or new businesses popping up in your neighborhood).
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